Grocers seek the LEED

With the announcement that it aims to open the first U.S. supermarket to receive top LEED Platinum certification for environmentally friendly construction, Hannaford Bros. Co. is setting the bar high for competing stores.

The Maine-based grocery chain, with three dozen Capital Region markets, touted the goal in plans for a new store set to open later this month in Augusta, in its home state. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a program of the U.S. Green Building Council.

According to Hannaford, the new store’s green features include reuse and recycling of 99 percent of the former structure on the site, a high school. The store is expected to use 36 percent less energy than a typical supermarket.

The Capital Region’s hometown grocery chain, Price Chopper, just opened a new Colonie store in a shopping plaza on Central Avenue at Route 155 that is looking to qualify for LEED Gold certification, the second-highest level.

Meanwhile, Giant Eagle Inc., a Pittsburgh-based grocery chain with 200 stores in three states, has laid claim to LEED certification firsts with stores in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

#1, you said it yourself: This is the ‘save the whales’ of this decade so I’m assuming all those people care about the building being green. If these types of stores can ultimately keep costs down then I would hope that the cost of groceries won’t go up as fast (I know they will never go down). In that case, everyone would care about these types of stories.

People are concerned about their budget rather than where they shop. It make no sense whether the building is “green” or not. If the market provide all the essential commodities and the price is checked, then nothing will bother the people.

I find it amusing that Hannaford made an announcement that they’re planning to open a “green” store 300 miles from here…within days of Price Chopper actually opening one right here in Colonie. I read somewhere on line that the Hannaford store will be much smaller than a regular supermarket. Is this true?